"The 33"-Road Bike RacingWe set this forum up for our members to discuss their experiences in either pro or amateur racing, whether they are the big races, or even the small backyard races. Don't forget to update all the members with your own race results.

I am wanting to get bigger mileage but I don't know how I should rest. In books it seems like they say to ride every day but take some days where you recover and just spin. I commute every day and its a 6 mile commute mostly downhill the way there and you guessed it uphill the 3 miles home. I do not get any days of rest unless its a holidy from riding my bike and just by commuting I'm doing about 250 miles a month. So should I take a few days of recovery days where I put it on a very low gear and spin to work and school and home?

I really have a hard time recovering on the road...there are too many hills and spots where my power gets too high. I recover best on the trainer, where I can keep the power super low. If you feel you can be disciplined about keeping the power low, recovering on the commute would work great.

Just get after it and listen to your body. You'll know when you're tired and need recovery. If I had all the time in the world to train, I'd still only ride 6 days/wk, and I'd only ride hard 5 days/wk.

I am wanting to get bigger mileage but I don't know how I should rest. In books it seems like they say to ride every day but take some days where you recover and just spin. I commute every day and its a 6 mile commute mostly downhill the way there and you guessed it uphill the 3 miles home. I do not get any days of rest unless its a holidy from riding my bike and just by commuting I'm doing about 250 miles a month. So should I take a few days of recovery days where I put it on a very low gear and spin to work and school and home?

Are you only commuting at the moment? If you are just doing the 250 miles / month you don't need to worry about recovery. If not, could you post a typical week of riding for you now?

I don't think you should be concerned about specific recovery days until you are really putting in either big mileage or very hard efforts.

+1 on 250 miles/month = no real need for "rest". I rode less this summer (avg 200/mo) and raced about 5 or 6 times. I was in the hunt once.

+1 on more detail - for example, you don't specify your weekend rides. If they're 120 miles long, then, yeah, you should probably take it easy a couple days.

+1 on how to train with unlimited time. I've taken "training camp" trips of up to 3 weeks and though I might average 3-4 hours a day, some days are "easy" 60-90 minutes and others are harder 5-6 hour rides. I simply can't sustain 5 or 6 hours a day. I usually take a day off each week and have 1-2 easy days. So I have 2-3 easy days out of 7.

cdr

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"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson

Thats my typical commute but on the way home I take detours and it takes me about an hour to get home. But also I'm riding a MTB with MTB tires so 8 miles is a bit different than on a road bike. Later towards april or may I'll be riding a road bike.

Base your measurements on time then, not miles. No matter what you're riding, if you ride "sorta hard" for an hour, you've ridden "sorta hard" for an hour. You might not go as far on the mtb but it's still the same time and effort, sort of.

I use time and heart rate (avg, peak, and total calories - which really is "how much relative work did I do compared to the other rides") to measure my efforts. This way I can sort of related efforts on the tandem, mtb, road bike, and indoors.

cdr

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"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson

I am wanting to get bigger mileage but I don't know how I should rest. In books it seems like they say to ride every day but take some days where you recover and just spin. I commute every day and its a 6 mile commute mostly downhill the way there and you guessed it uphill the 3 miles home. I do not get any days of rest unless its a holidy from riding my bike and just by commuting I'm doing about 250 miles a month. So should I take a few days of recovery days where I put it on a very low gear and spin to work and school and home?

Umm Even if you ride every single day 6 miles it's still only 186 miles in a month.

Pcad believes in moderation. One day off each month whether I need it or not.

Actually more like 2+ days a week lately. Icy roads = Pcad sits. That's OK. I rode too many friggin miles last year. And the Ride Thirty Miles an Hour All Winter idiots on the Nyack Ride did not dumpl me Sunday, so I can't be that out of shape. If Dr. W. or Roger Who Should Be Pro had been there driving the train of course Pcad would have been shelled like a cheap oyster.

Mr. and Mrs. Pcad actually get some quality snuggle time on icy weekend mornings. She's not used to that. I was doing this bike weenie weekend racer thing when we were dating. She was well trained prior to our nuptuals. They call that the Road Nazi Velo Prenup.